Harvesting fruit grown on bushes has emerged from hand-picking in commercial operations, and now centers in machines that straddle the bushes and shake the fruit loose. Blueberries are commonly picked this way. The machines usually have some form of receiving system that deflects the fruit laterally from its point of contact as it falls, over to collecting conveyors on the opposite sides of the machines. These conveyors extend in the direction of movement on the machine, and deposit the fruit in receptacles. A machine of this type is described in my application Ser. No. 378,373, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,850. The present invention provides an improved receiving system over that shown in that patent and others I am familiar with.
The standard receiving system involves two sets of pivoted overlapped plates, one on each side of the machine, that are inclined upwardly toward the center. The plates of each set lie one on top of the other like a spread deck of cards. They pivot rearwardly on encountering the lower portion of a bush. As the bush passes through the machine, the plates swing back to again extend upwardly toward the center, usually with a slight sweepback to minimize contacting forces. These plates have usually been molded of plastic material in a configuration providing stiffening ribs that increase the effective thickness of the plates, and establish spaces between the plates where they overlap. These have proven to be inviting places for the accumulation of pieces of fruit, which tend to interfere with plate movement. The present invention provides a plate construction that is free of these tendencies, and causes each plate to sweep the next succeeding plate clear as the swinging action proceeds.